


Retreat Day

by Lunarium



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Birthday, Cake, Catching Up, Fluff, M/M, shiro birthday exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-25 22:21:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13844229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: Shiro returns just in time for his birthday, and Keith takes the time to do some catching up.





	Retreat Day

“You know, you can’t keep getting injured like this,” Keith said as he walked into Shiro’s room. One arm was behind his back, and his expression betrayed his words of chastise. “You’re running out of arms.”

It was a terrible joke, and Keith knew it; he couldn’t crack them up the way Hunk or Lance could, but Shiro looked up, his eyes shined and the corners of his lips curled with the shared humor. 

Shiro was sitting up in his bed with his back against the wall of his pad. His right robotic arm had been removed for fixing; Pidge had wanted to spend time on it in case there were any trackers or bugs on it. She’d want to eliminate them, although Allura and the team had all agreed that should the arm be beyond repair, she and Hunk could proceed to build Shiro a new arm. 

The robotic arm had been in no useable shape when Keith had found him, and his left arm had sustained injury from a battle: blood, and suspicions of a broken bone. It was nothing a good hour in the healing pod couldn’t cure, but after Shiro had stepped out he complained of a pain that extended from his fingers to the middle of his arm, a deep-set pain that could be best described as numbness. 

“I’m afraid that’s not something the healing pod could fix,” Coran had said after Shiro was diagnosed as having carpel tunnel. 

“But what did I do to get this…” Shiro said as he studied his arm with a grimace.

“Trauma to the arm can do that, but I’m afraid any important injury was already healed. The pain is just a lingering effect. Healing pods were intended for wounds sustained on the battlefield, and not for common ailments like the common lotovirus or carpel tunnel. You best rest up a bit.” 

Keith still had to chuckle at “common _loto_ virus” and wonder which one of Lotor’s parents had been in charge of naming the prince. 

In any event, he had a more important situation. Shiro was here. He was safe. And at the moment, one arm was at repairs and the other was wrapped up in a splint. That was fine. He could make use of that, especially with the important announcement he was about to make. 

“It was either you get crushed or I gave Goliath my all and throw him out into space,” Shiro said. “I was certain I had broken a bone, but it seemed the healing pod did most of the trick.” 

Keith nodded. Goliath was a horrific sight. About two times the height of the tallest Galra they had met, and extremely powerful. He was the beast responsible for both of Shiro’s injuries. 

“I would not have minded having you fuss over me a little,” Keith said. “It gets tiring to keep fretting over you.” 

“Then I will see myself out,” Shiro said with a teasing smile and pretended as if he was about to leave. 

Keith swept in and gave him a quick peck on the lips as he settled on the side of the bed. He squeezed Shiro’s hand and presented to him what he had been hiding behind his back. 

Shiro blinked a couple of times. “Um.” 

Keeping his face steady took all of his strength but soon Keith’s resolve broke. “It’s your birthday today. Hunk made your favorite.” He gingerly set the plate on Shiro’s lap. 

With Kaltenecker around, it was easy enough to replicate the creamy texture of cheesecake back on Earth, and there were no shortage of different kinds of grains from numerous planets for them to sample and make a crust that tasted just like the shortbread crust that went best with this dessert. It was finding the best fruit to replace the strawberry that became the hardest task. That turned into a fun little experiment in the kitchen between himself, Hunk, and Pidge, and by now all three were well sated with alien fruit. 

“Like it?” Keith asked. 

“It looks amazing, thank you,” Shiro said, and the warmth in his eyes spread throughout his features. “I completely forgot…” 

“It happens,” Keith said. Picking up the fork, he cut a piece and brought it to Shiro’s lips. “The fruit is really sweet and it doesn’t blow up in your mouth like the other one did.” 

Shiro gave him a look before opening his mouth and taking the piece in. His eyes lit up despite the strange story. 

“It’s delicious,” he said with a smile. 

Keith smiled and scooped up another. 

“I’m sure I can feed my—”

“No.” Keith gave him another peck and nuzzled against him. “I just got you back. I’m going to fuss over you until you’re doing better.” 

Shiro gave a brief chuckle and a sigh before taking the next piece. “If you insist.” 

“You know, there’s an alternate reality where every year has a February twenty-ninth except for the fourth year,” Keith said, “and that year is called a retreat year. Some places have even turned that twenty-eighth day as a day when they double-treat themselves because they know they can’t have an extra slice of cake on the twenty-ninth. 

“Some pull pranks. Because not everyone remembers that there’s a missing day in a retreat year, so some would schedule an appointment or make plans to meet on that day. It’s called the missing step prank. Of course, this happens in our Earth, in a different reality. Nice that people are still strange in both worlds, huh?” 

Shiro listened with a vaguely confused look as he ate from Keith. 

“Different realities? Like the stuff Slav has always been talking about?” 

Keith nodded. “We ended up in one before.” He set the empty plate and fork aside, then settled into bed right against Shiro. He draped his arms over him and tucked his face in Shiro’s neck. Shiro brought his left arm around him.

“That sounds like a long story,” Shiro said. 

Keith sighed happily and snuggled closer. 

“There is so much that happened after you disappeared,” Keith said. “There’s so much I want to share with you. To tell you.” 

Smiling, Shiro nuzzled against him. “We got all night.”


End file.
